


butter slowly melting

by boxofwonder



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Confused Gay Feelings, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Modern AU, Terrible soap operas, lazy sunday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 11:02:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14079471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxofwonder/pseuds/boxofwonder
Summary: The background lull of senseless soap opera reruns soothed Mae into a trance, her attention on her fingers working tiny braids in Celica’s beautiful hair. Mae had long smoothed it into a tumble of red swept to one side where Celica rested in her lap - half of the silky strands were already braided, though not tied down.





	butter slowly melting

**Author's Note:**

> (comes home one day from my hospital stay) I MUST WRITE MAELICA RIGHT NOW IMMEDIATELY.  
> Help, I've fallen and I can't get up.

The background lull of senseless soap opera reruns soothed Mae into a trance, her attention on her fingers working tiny braids in Celica’s beautiful hair. Mae had long smoothed it into a tumble of red swept to one side where Celica rested in her lap - half of the silky strands were already braided, though not tied down.

It wasn’t about a styling hair, but only the soothing motion as Celica hummed or made disgruntled noises, catching up with the episodes she had missed over the busy week.

This was their sunday. The remains of breakfast were still on the table, butter slowly melting just like sleepy Celica, feet tucked up on the sofa. She sighed again, but there was a certain tension in her shoulders. Mae glimpsed down to see her tiny frown, usually reserved for people who littered, or did not recycle properly.

_ Or _ this particular storyline in  _ Awakened Fate: Sacred Radiance of love. _

Honestly, the braiding had gotten  _ her  _ into some kind of trance more so than Celica herself. It was hard to care about cheesy soap opera plotlines when Mae could sink backwards into this moment and  _ stay _ here. Forever. 

Even though she knew eventually Celica would move out again, she had been talking about finding her own place since she turned up here with a bag and two suitcases. And eventually she would find somebody else to braid her hair on sunday mornings. Or worse - someone who wouldn’t even play with her hair when presented with the opportunity!

Mae idly parted three more strands of hair and sighed softly. Bad thoughts. Not sleepy enough for this day. 

“What a douche,” Celica muttered, clearly disgruntled. That  _ also  _ wasn’t sleepy enough.

“Do we switch channel?” Mae reached for the remote, only to have Celica’s warm fingers curl around her wrist in a definite gesture. 

“No,” she said, so serious, Mae had to bite her lip not to laugh. It was adorable. 

“Aye.” She tapped Celica’s scalp gently. “Then what’s the stitch? Lay it on me.”

Celica made another disgruntled noise. “I just don’t understand how either of them could let that douche play with them so much. He’s broken both these women’s hearts! He is selfish, and arrogant, and after every promise still has broken them all. He is a dishonest man.”

Mae bit her lip, grinning. She had  _ so  _ many things to say to that bastard’s storyline, but she was enjoying Celica’s quiet rage too much. 

She was just so  _ serious.  _ Mae loved it. Loved her. Fiercely, and forever.

“He’s terrible, right? They both deserve better!”

“Honestly!” Celica agreed with vigor. “In all this mess and betrayal they are the ones who have been there for each other! And now they are fighting because of him again? It does not make an inkling of sense!”

“Well, it’s soap opera writing,” Mae sighed. If it’d be up to her, the both of them would long have fallen for each other and forgotten that bastard. “But yeah, it totally sucks. Like, if the same happened to us? I’d wring his neck and take you out for waffles after.”

“I don’t think you’d have to go that far,” Celica muttered, ever the pacifist. “You shouldn’t get violent.”

Mae sighed and stayed wisely quiet, moving onto the next braid and smiling as she felt Celica relax a little at the soft touch. Oh, what she would have liked to do to Celica’s stupid ex. Nothing her friend would want to hear. (Boey and Genny agreed, though.)

“I do appreciate the sentiment, though,” Celica admitted quietly. “And in case anyone ever betrayed you like that? I cannot guarantee to follow my principles a hundred per cent …” 

Mae’s heart nearly gave out. Critical hit!

“I do think it’d be a stunning sight. But don’t you worry,” she said, voice full of peaceful certainty. “I won’t have my heart broken anytime soon.”

Celica hummed in thought, and settled in more comfortably. Her silence felt a little too cunning and wistful for Mae’s tastes, but Celica hadn’t found her out in years, so Mae was long past worry. Her feelings were comfortably tucked away inside her, warm and alive and occasionally, aching. Only when it got a little cold.

When Celica spoke again, it was slow, as if picking her words carefully. “It just feels like … they’d be perfect.”

Mae froze and hastily tried to get back to braiding, even though she had forgotten how to breathe normally. How did someone braid hair again? Good thing her fingers remembered. 

“P-perfect?”

“Yeah. Lissa and Maribelle just seem like they’d be so happy together,” Celica muttered. “Don’t you … don’t you think?”

Mae didn’t know what to respond! Had - did Celica - was there any meaning to this?! Was this a gal pal thing?! She’d never shown interest in any girl before! She’d also never agreed that two tv ladies should totally smooch! So - why now?! Was it a test?! Was she just being genuine? Gah!

So much for  _ comfortably tucked away! _

At the prolonged silence, Celica turned onto her back, blinking up at Mae. Her eyes were clear and open and beautiful, there was a slight crease in her left cheek,flushed with warmth, and she was so precious and wonderful that Mae wanted to wrap her arms around her and crush her against her chest. “Yeah,” Mae managed, and smiled, and didn’t die. 

Celica’s answering smile held the power to kill someone and bring them back from the dead in the same breath. “Right? They’re so supportive of each other, and they’d just be so happy together … even now it feels like Maribelle is only fighting this hard to protect Lissa from more heartbreak … they should just …”

“Take a - take chance … ?” Mae asked. 

Celica nodded, which caused a cacophony of confused butterflies and warning sirens in Mae’s chest. “Yes! Because they’re … friends. They trust each other. It’d be … comfortable, right? Not to try to shape yourself to expectations … not to work so hard to see if you’re compatible ...  but to settle with someone who already knows you.”

Mae wanted to weep with confusion. She had to play it cool and with her cards to her chest because this may be just about Lissa and Maribelle, two fictional ladies, on tv, in a terrible historical drama. But - but - it felt so - personal … !

“S-sounds like a dream! Totally peachy! Bam, cheat code right to the happy ending. I mean, just, bring the wedding bells right in, right?!” Oh, her voice was getting away from her. And Celica was looking at her,  _ looking  _ and seeing and Mae didn’t know  _ what  _ she saw.

“Yeah,” Celica breathed, seeming satisfied, and rolled back onto her side, nuzzling into Mae’s lap and settling in, lazy and boneless like a cat. 

Mae had forgotten how to move her hands, or where to put them. What did this mean? Did it mean anything? 

Was her cover blown?

Did Celica feel the  _ same?!  _

Were they Lissa and Maribelle?! Would Celica want her to be the Lissa to her - wait, would Mae be the Lissa in the relationship?!

“Mae,” Celica said gently.

“Y-yeah?!” Oh, she so had to get her voice under control.

“Uhm, would you mind braiding my hair more … ? It feels really nice.” 

She said it so calmly. Mae slapped her cheeks, hard, and nodded, sitting straight and determined. “Yes! Of course!” She surrendered her initial vigor to carefully pick the strand she was working on back up, and Celica’s eyes were glued back to the screen, where some writer had decided the girls wouldn’t end up together. 

But this was real life, right?

This was …

Mae had no answers, only questions and chaos in her heart. 

But maybe it wasn’t all that hopeless. Maybe … maybe it would stay this way. Celica relaxed in her lap, Mae braiding her hair, as they bickered about terrible shows, as the butter melted on the breakfast table. 

Celica hadn’t mentioned moving out in a little while, had she? Hope was a dangerous thing, but it filled Mae with warmth and energy that demanded to be unleashed on starting a completely new hobby or running a marathon or cleaning the  _ entire flat  _ to get Celica to stay in such a sparkly clean environment.

But that wasn’t sleepy enough for their sunday, so instead, as Celica watched and clucked her tongue and muttered commentary, Mae kept braiding her hair with a grin so wide it  _ ached  _ in the best way.

**Author's Note:**

> Friends slowburning to lovers without really noticing is my life force.
> 
> (Also you BET Mae is an avid Lissa/Maribelle fic writer in this universe lol. Please forgive me the terrible soap title, I had to laugh so much mashing that together.)


End file.
